1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for disassembling an axle from a wheel and, more particularly, is concerned with an apparatus for extracting an axle being press-fitted within a bearing of a caster used on a shopping cart.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Retail stores typically provide shopping carts for customers to push about the store in order to carry the items they collect and intend to purchase later at checkout stations of the store at the conclusion of the shopping trip. Shopping carts experience considerable abuse from impacts with each other as well as with store and parking lot fixtures. Such abuse frequently leads to damage to components of the carts, such as the casters used on most shopping carts, which require servicing and oftentimes replacement of the casters.
Servicing of a caster frequently requires removal of the caster by removable of an axle from a bearing in the caster. The axle is tightly press-fitted into the bearing. It takes more then the use of pliers or the like and the manual strength of a service person to remove it. Some device or fixture which is capable of application of a considerable amount of force, substantially more than can be applied manually, is required to successfully extract an axle from a caster.
A variety of different pullers and presses have been proposed in the prior patent art to disassemble components from one another. Representative of these devices are the ones disclosed in U.S. patents to Lindgren (U.S. Pat. No. 2,184,356), Bernardi (U.S. Pat. No. 3,031,741), Durant (U.S. Pat. No. 3,638, 294) and Gould (U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,195). The Gould apparatus is used for disassembling and assembling skate wheels.
However, none of these prior art devices appear to be suitable for extraction of axles from casters. Consequently, a need still exists for an apparatus capable of use in removing an axle from the caster of a shopping cart.